Community EV Charger Planner

The tool displays current (2024) information about BEVs and public EV chargers based on the regions visible within the map window. The tool also provides forecasted demand for EV charging that can be manipulated interactively to help with planning activities.

The tool responsively scales to fit the window it sits within so EECA recommends using the planner in full screen mode.(external link)

1. Select a year in the top panel to forecast demand for that year.
   
2. Either zoom in to an area of the map, or ‘Choose Stats NZ Area’ from the dropdown menu in the top panel, to forecast demand for an area (this dropdown menu can take a while to load on some machines due to the large number of regions).
   
   Note, zooming to a map area and then clicking ‘Choose Stats NZ Area’ will narrow down the areas in the menu to only show what is within the view of the map. This can streamline your targeting process.
   
3. Data can be added or removed from the map with the ‘Layers’ button in the top right of the map.
   
4. Detailed information about the Stats NZ Areas can be displayed by clicking on them in the map.
   
5. Panels in the dashboard can be individually expanded by hovering on the panel and clicking the ‘expand’ button in the top right corner.
   
6. Plots can be downloaded as a CSV by using the ‘download’ button in the bottom left corner.
   

• EV Charger – a device separate from an electric vehicle that has a mains electricity input and provides either a DC or AC electrical output to charge an electric vehicle. Modern chargers with multiple charging points can charge one or more electric vehicles simultaneously.
• Site – a location where one or more chargers are located.
• Power rating categories used are the classifications adapted in the New Zealand standards for commercial electric vehicle (EV) charging document - SNZ PAS 6010:2023 :: Standards New Zealand(external link). These standards enable consistent reporting to the International Energy Agency (IEA) for comparison to other countries.
• BEVs – Battery Electric vehicles. Data presented here excludes Plug in Hybrid Electric vehicles (PHEVs). Current BEV ownership data is sourced from NZTA and is geocoded to region and district.
• BEV penetration – the percentage (%) of BEVs in the overall light vehicle fleet.
• BEVs per charger – the EVs per charger based on the geocoded vehicle registration address.
• Public points – existing public EV chargers.
• Pipeline points – chargers that are in the pipeline to be built, where known by EECA.
• Excluded areas – areas that are excluded from the forecasts, as the number of privately owned BEVs are likely skewed by large numbers of commercially registered BEVs.

This map combines a range of publicly available information to predict the additional charge points required at a future date.  The key datasets used include:

• Existing charge points – sourced from charge point operators (CPOs) via NZTA’s EV Roam database.(external link) Updated monthly.
• Projected BEVs – sourced from Climate Change Commission (CCC) demonstration path (2022 update),(external link) adjusted to capture just the BEV share of the total EV fleet.
• Current number and location of EVs by area – sourced from NZTA’s register of light vehicles <3.5tonne.(external link)  Data is updated quarterly.
• Population projections by area – sourced from Stats NZ, 2023 update of Census 2018 base data.(external link)
• Occupation information by area – sourced from Stats NZ, based on the 2018 Census.(external link)

• The projected future need for charge points is based on a ratio of 40 EVs per charging point. For an international benchmark, refer to IEA 2023; Trends in Charging Infrastructure.(external link)
• Existing charge point data is drawn from NZTA’s EV Roam dataset plus data received from Tesla and several other CPO’s.
• The current number of BEVs has been sourced from NZTA as at the date shown.
• The projected nationwide BEV fleet is based on the CCC demonstration path.

Projections of future EV numbers by statistical area (SA2) are based on the nationwide totals generated by the CCC. These nationwide projections are then spread across each statistical area based on current uptake combined with projected population growth. Applying the target number of charge points per BEV to each area gives the projected number of charge points required.

This assumes that future EV uptake will remain relatively high in the areas that are currently high and relatively low in areas that are currently low.

The excluded statistical areas are not included in this future allocation meaning that the number of BEVs in those areas remains static in future years.

Statistical areas with large numbers of vehicles registered to companies/government agencies have been removed from the analysis to avoid distortion. For example, companies/government agencies with large fleets registered to a head office location may differ from where the vehicles are operated from. Including these vehicles in the predictions would distort the future estimates of the number of EVs in the statistical area, particularly in later years, and inflate the need for chargers.

As this planning tool is aimed at assisting CPOs with future placement of chargers in the community, these statistical areas have been removed and will show as grey within the map. However, the details of the population and vehicles in these areas can be seen by clicking on the area.

Differences between chargers or charging points shown in the map and what are currently operational could arise due to update timing differences or due to CPOs not updating their data within EV Roam.